


Baby It’s Cold Outside

by LLReid



Category: Love & Legends (Visual Novel)
Genre: Canon Lesbian Relationship, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, My Attempt At Being Festive, Wives, dyslexic writer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 13:10:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21428773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LLReid/pseuds/LLReid
Summary: Ten months after coming home to Chicago, a thriving Helena Klein and her wife admire the christmas lights in the falling snow.
Relationships: Helena Klein/Athena Spencer, Helena Klein/Main Character
Comments: 7
Kudos: 42





	Baby It’s Cold Outside

If someone had told Helena only a few years prior that she would wind up winning the war and her freedom against the Witch Queen and then retiring to another world where no one knew her, save for her wife, she never would have believed that such a thing could ever be possible. Yet, it had been close to ten months (Chicago time) since she and her beloved had come home, and she had never been happier.

For so long Helena had wanted to die, yet had been nowhere near actually wanting to kill herself. But she could understand feeling so detached from her own life. To feel that her physical and emotional connections to everyone else was so paper-thin that all it would take is one decisive snip to be separated completely. For so long, if she had not clung, she drifted. She had felt that no one was holding her. Until meeting Athena and finding the courage to change everything, she had been the only one who held. She had spent so much time, so much effort, trying to hold herself together. And then everything had always fallen apart anyway.

Things had changed so much that she was barely identifiable as the same woman who’d suffered under the Witch Queen’s hands. Now, Helena was not only a married woman, she had a home, she had friends in both worlds, she was a college student who consistently surpassed everybody’s expectations, and she had hobbies and interests and opinions that she was allowed to express without shame. She understood that when one is challenged — and only when one continues to challenge themselves — do they discover what truly matters.

Now, Helena understood why people wanted to share a life with someone else. Love did not hurt or have to be earned. She understood what all the fuss was about. It was not simply about sex or being in a couple when you socialise with other couples. It was not for ego or gratification or fear of loneliness. It was all about the joy she felt whenever she so much as thought about her wife, about all the ways that both of them had grown and changed together since coming home — and all the ways that they would continue to change as time passed them by.

“These decorations are extraordinary,” Helena breathed. She was still a little mystified by the hundreds of holidays scattered throughout the year, and had not long gotten over the amusement of Halloween only a few weeks before when she and Athena had worn matching cat costumes — that Helena had thoroughly enjoyed picking out — to a party at their friend Belle’s home. Yet the sparkling lights and decorated trees in almost every store window were unlike anything she had ever witnessed, even though their apartment was beautifully decorated and she and Sophie had spent the evening helping Athena decorate her coffee shop in a similar way.

She had not experienced her first Christmas yet, but she knew that it would be her favourite holiday. Somehow she got the sense that it brought people together and made time stand still. Her wife had told her that presents were not important, but Helena had decided that they were, not because of how much they cost or how much time they took to make, but for the opportunity they provide to say ‘I understand you’. She did not have to do any research to figure that much out by herself.

“I swear they get prettier every year,” Athena agreed, seemingly oblivious to the fact that her smile was by far the prettiest thing on display. She was beautiful in the way that a breeze was beautiful — the kind of beauty one cannot help but feel gratitude for.

With her hand held in hers, the Chicago native seemed immune to the ungodly chill in the air; her winter jacket was not zipped up and even the fashionable holes at the knees of her black skinny jeans didn’t seem to be bothering her any. Whereas Helena was wrapped up beneath a fleece lined burgundy jacket, a knitted scarf and gloves, and wearing a matching pair of Dr Marten boots to Athena’s with thick socks beneath them, and she could still feel the freezing temperatures of her first Chicago winter seeping down to her bones. The warm flask filled with her favourite hot chocolate that Athena had made for her provided some comfort, though, as it was not outrageously sweet and it was supposedly a traditional drink that one enjoyed when the snow was falling.

There was nothing very cheerful about the cold at all, and yet there was an air of cheerfulness and solidarity that the cleverest summer air and brightest July sunset could not ever have compared with. All around people were wrapped up and most were hauling multiple shopping bags on each arm, it really felt like everyone was in it together — much like how an army from all walks of life felt as they charged into battle to face a common enemy.

The sorceress smiled whilst studying the city around her and began to tell her love how her classes had gone that day. She could now navigate her new home as expertly as Athena could and was not nearly as phased by the crowds and modern technology as she had once been — something about knowing the ins and outs of how things worked had made everything seem far less intimidating than it had at first. 

What Helena had learned about the realm of possibility — was that it was always expanding, it is never what one thinks it is. Everything around her was once things she would have deemed to be impossible. From the airplane flying overhead to the phone in her pocket to the choir of teenagers singing festive songs in front of a large decorated tree. As hard as it was for her to see sometimes, everything exists within the realm of possibility. Most of the limits were of her own world’s devising. And yet, every day she did many things that were once impossible to her as if she had been doing them from the time she was small.

How bizarre and unexpected it was to feel more at home in a world so different than the one she had been born into. Some part of her frequently wondered if she had somehow been born in the wrong place and Athena had been cast into the other world to save her and bring her home. Part of her wondered what it would be like to see their city as a tourist, as even the first time she had seen it it had not felt like she were merely visiting. She liked to believe that Chicago would always live up to its reputation. The buildings really were that tall, the lights really were that bright, there truly was a different story on each and every corner. But it would still be a shock to realise one is just one story walking among millions. To not feel the bright lights even as they fill the freezing December air. To see the tall buildings and only feel a deep longing for the stars above.

Helena had absolutely adored how Athena had always included her in everything, from the very moment that they had met in the woods. The way the she had taken a total stranger in a foreign world and somehow immediately made her feel a part of everything, had only made Helena care about her even more — even before their relationship had blossomed into the love that would destroy the greatest evil the world had ever known. It had taught Helena that she was in fact, a love-worthy individual. It had given her the courage to fight for her life. Having someone think of her in that way had been like discovering a new window in a room she had lived in all her life. The younger woman had frequently ripped herself to shreds to prove that Helena was worth loving, and she would not hear the chorus of everyone the sorceress had let down.

“Have I ever told you that you glow when you’re happy?,” Athena smiled, proudly. Her kindness sparkled in her eyes and it was much more a sign of character than mere niceness. Helena had learned that kindness connects to who a person is deep inside, while niceness connects to how they want to be seen by the world.

She chuckled and rolled her eyes, playfully. Even though she had heard the compliment a thousand times it continued to fluster her in the best of ways. “You tell me that every time I am happy, my love.”

“Good. Just so we’re clear that you’re adorable and it’s so nice to see you out from you-know-who’s shadow. Because things don't grow in shadows, you know?” Athena gave her hand a tight squeeze. “It’s really cool for me to watch you grow and discover what makes you happy. Especially since you’re not in anyone’s shadow anymore. I like seeing you standing tall where everyone can see you.”

She stopped walking and pulled Athena as close to her as was physically possible before taking her lips on hers. Every time she kissed her it was not just kissing with their whole bodies, but with something that was far bigger than their bodies, that was simultaneously who they were and who they would become. They were kissing from a deeper part of themselves, and with each kiss they found a deeper part of each other that no one else was allowed to know. It felt like electricity hitting water, fire reaching paper, like the brightest Christmas lights finding their eyes through the haze of snow falling around them.  
It was the night of the first heavy snow of the year; with the use of her magic, all around Helena could hear the branches of the trees that lined the sidewalk bending and the icicles forming. Yet with Athena in her arms, they were warmth together. They were hot breath and cuddles and wrapping themselves close.

Helena did not want to be anywhere else, with anyone else. She no longer wanted to be anyone else, save for herself. She just wanted Athena, which was exactly what she had, and there was no one else she would rather be sharing in her happiness with.

“Do you recall the day we spent larking in the river by my workshop?,” she asked, with a smile on her face, as she rested her brow against Athena’s. She was so happy that she barely took a breath between each word and they felt like they were clumsy inside of her mouth, almost like how typing with hammers would unfold.

“I pushed you into the water and you splashed me, and we laughed until our throats hurt.”

“And you told me that I should enjoy my peace, as you only live once...but if you do it right, once is more than enough. I loved you from that moment on.”

“I loved you from that moment on,” Athena agreed.

“It is strange for me to think that there was ever a time before you but I no longer think of it now. A time before your beauty and I were formally introduced.” She kissed the tip of her wife’s nose. “I lived without you but I do not remember how I managed. I cannot imagine living without these feelings you have produced within me.”

“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Helena beamed, as she was completely unable to contain the lightness and joy she felt within her heart. Her potential, though it had not always been apparent, had always been there waiting to be discovered and invited forth. She had figured out what it meant to dance like there was nobody watching, to love like she would never be hurt, to sing like there was nobody listening to a word she said, and to live each and every one of her days like it was a heaven on earth. She now kept away from people who would belittle her goals and ambitions. Small-minded people always did that, she had learned, but the greatest would make one feel that they, too, could become great. Each and every day Helena felt herself becoming great, it was a slow and steady process, yet anything in the world that was even worth doing in the first place was worth doing slowly.

She was Helena Klein. She was broken and also healing, and she belonged to no one but herself. Yet her heart belonged to Athena...it always had and it always would. She was her beginning, her middle, and her end, and together they were a song that may as well have been sung from the heavens from the first embers of starlight in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Insomnia may have spurred me into writing a full length sequel for my Helena/Athena fic ‘I Will Always Find You’ that is written from the perspective of multiple characters. It’s dark as hell, has Helena and Athena’s kids, lots of Ishara, a redeemed Alain, lore, and delves further into the version of the L&L universe that I created in that first fic — and explains why I ended it the way I did.
> 
> Is that something you guys would like me to post once I edit it?


End file.
